Chapter 12
CHAPTER 12
SANTA
Fanglory's vampire physician, Dr. Bredlow, said I was physically fine after taking a blood sample and running a few other tests. Then they looked at me with one eyebrow arched. "You're acting strange, though."
"Yeah?"
"You haven't flirted with me once." They touched my bicep. "Haven't complimented my hair. Haven't asked me where I got my new lipstick." They winked.
Even by vampire standards, they were hot as fuck. They'd rolled the white lab coat up over their slender brown arms, displaying their perfect skin and French manicure. Their blue scrubs clung to their form in all the right places.
"I'm sorry, darling." Even my flirting tone fell flat. "I'm not really in a flirting mood."
"That worried about your health?" They tapped my sternum through my thin tank top. "Or something else?"
I cleared my throat and pretended to think about it, even though I knew exactly what was wrong. I was falling for Boz. After so many years without, I'd thought I was immune to feelings.
That's why I'd asked him to move into my building. I helped strays. I didn't fall in love with them.
"Rumor has it, he's dating someone," Jameson said over my shoulder as he entered Dr. Bredlow's tiny office. He set two tumblers of warm blood on their desk and ducked out before I could protest.
"Dating someone." Dr. Bredlow grinned, and their fangs popped below their top lip. "Ooh, this will be fun to see."
"I thought you liked me," I said. I was a good enough actor for the VIP lounge, but they laughed at my feigned hurt.
"It's fun to fool around, but I've always wondered what it would take to get you to open up to someone, maybe settle down."
"Nobody's worth my job."
They scoffed into their fist. "You don't need this job. You say so all the time."
"I don't need the job," I said defensively. "I do it for fun."
"Promise me something," they said.
Now it was my turn to scoff. "What? "
"You'll let yourself be happy, for once."
"I'm happy!"
"You've been faking it for years." They tapped a manicured nail against their clipboard before setting it on the desk and picking up both tumblers of blood.
I took the offered cup and sipped at it while I thought. "I haven't been … unhappy," I tried again.
"You're great with the public," they said. "With us, you're guarded and withdrawn. It's been worse since Key and Greed left."
"I'll see them on Christmas Eve."
They nodded. "Good. Will I get to meet your 'someone'?"
Shit. Of course they would be there. Key and his little sister had tons of friends at the club. Why had I thought it would be a small gathering?
"Yeah, I'm bringing him."
They nodded. "Good. See you there!"
Now I had something else to distract me from thinking about Boz. While we were slow, I asked around. The rowdier bunch were holding their own party in the abandoned warehouse Dobbins had vacated. Only a handful knew about Key's party.
Still, a handful of my coworkers were about to discover how far gone I was for Boz. The thought terrified me.
The witch showed up at my doorstep at dusk the following night. She was pleasant enough, and efficient. In a half-hour, she reinforced my wards so tight I could feel the boundary when I walked through. Any vampire who meant harm to me or my tenants would feel the sun's wrath, no matter what time of night.
The spell charged during the day, like a solar battery. It would be weaker during the winter months, but it was far more powerful than the binding spell I'd bought a century ago.
"They're watching you," the witch whispered to me when I brought her back inside and handed her the envelope of cash for her services.
"Who?"
"Another witch cast the spell. It's a magical recording device. Who knows where the information it captures is saved, or who's watching."
"Thanks. You've reminded me why I don't trust witches." I grinned in an attempt to soften my harsh comment.
She snorted. "I don't trust most vampires, but I like Colette, and she told me about your tenant, Boz. That's the only reason I told you about the surveillance spell."
Boz made alliances everywhere he went, it seemed.
Dr. Bredlow's words from the night before haunted me as I walked the witch back to her car and watched her drive away. I hadn't flirted with her, either.
I met Boz at his door at dusk on Christmas Eve. Strings of LED lights glowed above the door and across the kitchen counter, but the strongest light in the room was from the Christmas tree in the corner.
I shoved a box into Boz's arms. "Merry Christmas!"
"What the hell?" He took the box but didn't move from the doorway. "I was saving your present until … wow. You look fucking amazing."
I shimmied my shoulders and did a quick heel spin to show off my black suit with shiny red sequins.
"What's in here?" he asked, shaking the box.
"A necessity," I said. "Key loves to dance as much as I do. I'm sure he'll have music playing."
Boz finally waved me in and shut the door behind me. "Have you ever tried to dance to Christmas music?"
"I'll dance with you to any music if you put those on."
He dashed to his bedroom so fast, I wondered if someone had turned him into a vampire while I wasn't looking. I knew that wasn't the case, of course. He still smelled human, and the only reason he seemed to move fast was because I watched him with such intensity. I wanted to memorize this moment, this night.
I had it so bad. I shouldn't have fallen for him, but my feelings had become harder to deny .
He returned a moment later in the pants and tuxedo shirt. "The jacket doesn't fit."
"It stretches." I sped around him, grabbing the jacket and holding it out for him to try it on before his gaze registered my movement.
"You don't have to be so impatient," he said. "We're still early."
"We are, but I want to stop by Irena's first."
He nodded obediently and slipped the jacket on. He didn't even argue when I told him we wouldn't need coats.
Irena's wasn't open, of course, but the rooftop door was, exactly as she'd said it would be.
"Merry Christmas," Irena said in greeting. She kissed both of Boz's cheeks and pulled me in for a hug and a kiss. "Lovely to see you both. Party?"
I nodded and reached for Boz's hand, showing her how gorgeous we both looked in our suits. Instead of red sequins, Boz's were blue.
"Look at how well you complement each other. Very festive." She motioned us to a table near the dance floor. "Sit. I have bottles of the synthetic blood for you," she pointed my direction, "and some dessert for you." She wagged her index finger at Boz.
She walked away, leaving Boz to stare after her until I pushed him into one of the few chairs available. The rest were upside down on top of the tables.
"We have plenty of time," I reassured him when he looked at his watch. "Never be on time for a party. You've heard the term fashionably late?"
"I assume you coined it," he countered with an eyeroll.
"Moi?" I faked a French accent as I pressed my hand to my chest. "Not a chance, sweetness. I was born and raised a pathetic early bird."
Irena returned with a bottle of synthetic blood and a plate of angel fingers. I nodded my thanks and opened the bottle. It smelled a lot like the energy drinks we used to make Jager bombs, only stronger. I sipped at the stuff while Boz picked at his dessert.
"What's wrong?"
"Nervous. I'm not great with new people."
"Colette says everyone at your job loves you," I reminded him. "Besides, the only humans who will be there are dating the vampires." Ithande would be there, and Jameson's boyfriend of the month.
"Is that what we are? Dating?" Boz asked.
"Well, yeah, aren't we?"
He grinned. "Can I call you my boyfriend, if anyone asks?"
I hated the word "boyfriend," but Boz held his breath and his heart sped up while waiting for my answer. I nodded. "Sure, call me whatever you want."
"You don't like it," he said. "Would you prefer lover?"
"Gross, no." I laughed. "Boyfriend is fine."
"Landlord?" Now he was teasing .
"It's true," I said with a shrug.
Irena turned on the festive lights above the dance floor, and music poured through the speakers. Without a roomful of people, the music seemed overloud, but it called to me. I stood and pulled Boz to his feet.
"Dance with me?"
He nodded.
I twirled him around the floor to a fast waltz. By the time it flowed into a slower number, Boz was panting and his hand felt damp in mine.
"I never thanked you," he said.
"For what?"
"Fixing all the bones in my leg. I slammed my left pinky in a car door when I was fifteen and I can still feel it twinge when it's about to rain. I haven't felt anything like that in my leg."
"You still feel the twinge in your pinky?" I asked. Usually, vampire blood healed every ailment at once.
He glanced down at where it rested on my shoulder and frowned. "Now that you mention it, no."
I grinned. "You're welcome."
He swatted my shoulder. "Are you ever going to tell me why it made you so nervous to give me your blood?"
"Greed can tell you," I said. "Her brother sired her. It took a deal with the empress to break her sire bond."
"But it can be broken." My hand bounced along his shoulder as he shrugged. "That's a chance I'm willing to take."
"I'd have to answer to Empress Marcella, if I turned you," I whispered. "It could go badly for both of us."
"The empress loves me, remember?" Boz grinned and twirled away from me as part of the dance, returning to slide his body against mine from hip to shoulder.
The music stopped after the third song, and Irena waited for us at the table. "You dance beautifully."
"Did you want a spin?" I held out my arms.
She shook her head. "Another time. Don't be late. Your friends will think you abandoned them."
I clasped her hands again and kissed her knuckles. "Better them than you." Her smile still held a hint of sorrow, so I kept talking. "They're vampires. They can take it."
I glanced around the empty restaurant, and my gaze landed on her husband, once again waiting in the shadows near the kitchen. He wasn't fond of vampires, but he loved Irena more than anything. For that, I was willing to forgive the quick beat of his heart and the sour stench of fear whenever I was around.
There was a time when I'd wanted the same for myself. I remembered another Christmas Eve, not that long ago, when she'd asked, "What is Santa's Christmas wish?" She might have been a little tipsy on the festive bottle of red she'd saved for the occasion .
"Same as yours, I imagine."
"Find someone to put up with you for the rest of your life." She clinked her wine glass against my empty to-go cup and drank the last dregs.
My eyes were a little misty as I came back to the present. I grinned at her and kissed both of her hands again. "Thanks for putting up with me, after everything," I said. "Merry Christmas."
When I released her hands, she clutched them to her chest. "It's wonderful to see you again. Have a wonderful time at the party, and don't forget, you're welcome to come here tomorrow night."
"Boz won't be home until late," I said, resting my head against his shoulder. "I'll see you at dusk."
For years, I'd assumed Irena was the only person who would put up with me. I'd pushed her away, trying to save her the frustration of dealing with me. Only one person had brought us back together. Boz.
The scary truth loomed before me. I wanted Boz by my side for the foreseeable future, maybe even the rest of my life. The question was, would he want to be with me?
Irena's was only two rooftops away from Key's apartment building. They also had roof access, but the door was locked. Instead of breaking in, which would have alerted every council member and half the city's vampire militia, I texted Key for help.
He opened the door for us a moment later, giving a low wolf whistle for our matching suits. He wore a green velvet smoking jacket over baggy blue jeans.
"I forgot you like to hop from roof to roof," Key said once I'd made introductions. "Are you about frozen?" he asked Boz.
"Nah. We danced at Irena's for a warmup before coming here."
"Irena's." Key whistled. "Must be serious if he introduced you to his best friend."
"I thought you were my best friend."
My scowl only made him laugh. "If I'm your best friend, I feel bad for you. I'm the worst."
"You've been busy with the new job and the rekindled flame," I reminded him.
"That's no excuse. Even Greed has been staying home more since what happened with Dobbins. We're all tired of dealing with the fallout, honestly."
"If I hear that name again," Boz grumbled.
Key frowned. "You're not one of those protesters, are you?"
"Boz works for Imperial Accounting," I said.
"Ah, good. You'll be one of us soon enough."
The color drained from Boz's face.
"Only if you want," I whispered .
"Does everyone know my future but me?" Boz asked.
"The empress is worried about your safety," Harley shared once Key made introductions. "Sorry, couldn't help but overhear. Humans are liabilities."
Boz nodded. "Santa's told me about the sire bond, and the bloodlust."
"Empress Marcella would handle your bloodlust training," Harley said. "I'm surprised they haven't turned you already."
"What would I say to my family?" he asked.
"Are they the religious type who believe in damnation of vampire souls?" Key rolled his eyes.
"No, but they think vampirism is something that happens to people who are afraid of losing their good looks or their competitive edge. I'm," he motioned to his body encased in the gorgeous blue suit I bought him, from his toes to his shoulders and back again. "Nothing."
"You're so much more than that," I said before our hosts could speak. "You're smart. Talented. Loyal, but you don't take people at face value."
"Unlikeable," he said.
"I happen to like you quite a lot." I wanted to rip him away from my friends and whisk him home right then, but Greed interrupted and dragged me away to order a twenty-ounce celebratory cup from Blood Drive. By the time I returned to Boz's side, the conversation had moved on without me, and Dr. Bredlow had joined the gathering crowd.
"Boz was just explaining …" the next words out of the good doctor's mouth made no sense to me. For the next half-hour, I listened with rapt attention while my boyfriend prattled on about graphs, charts, and numbers. I understood a few basics from when I'd measured boards for house walls, but the rest was too advanced for me.
I didn't care. I wanted to spend the rest of my life listening to Boz talk about math, if I could be by his side, stroking his thigh and listening to his warm baritone.
The same question bubbled to the surface, and my emotions turned my stomach sour. Did Boz feel the same way about me, or would we part ways once he'd gained enough confidence?
Nauseated, I rushed to the bathroom, but nothing came up. I could have blamed the synthetic blood, but I hadn't drunk enough of it.
I was empty inside, physically, mentally, and morally, if my ancestors' religious beliefs were true. I had no business dating someone as wonderful as Boz. Eventually, he'd figure that out, too.